Fermented Mixed Feed Increased Egg Quality and Intestinal Health of Laying Ducks

Changfeng Xiao, Yunying Xu, Changsuo Yang, Daqian He and Lihui Zhu ()
Additional contact information
Changfeng Xiao: Institute of Animal Husbandry and Veterinary Science, Shanghai Academy of Agricultural Sciences, Shanghai 201106, China
Yunying Xu: Shanghai Nonghao Feed Co., Ltd., Shanghai 201501, China
Changsuo Yang: Institute of Animal Husbandry and Veterinary Science, Shanghai Academy of Agricultural Sciences, Shanghai 201106, China
Daqian He: Institute of Animal Husbandry and Veterinary Science, Shanghai Academy of Agricultural Sciences, Shanghai 201106, China
Lihui Zhu: Institute of Animal Husbandry and Veterinary Science, Shanghai Academy of Agricultural Sciences, Shanghai 201106, China

Agriculture, 2025, vol. 15, issue 11, 1-15

Abstract: This study investigated the effects of adding fermented mixed feed (FMF, composed of several unconventional protein feeds, such as brown rice, rice bran, rice bran meal, sunflower meal, cottonseed meal, and corn starch residue) into the diet of Longyan Shan-ma ducks on their egg quality and intestinal health. The ducks were randomly divided into two groups: one group served as the control and received a standard diet, while the other group received a diet in which 4% of the feed was substituted with FMF. Compared to unfermented feed, FMF had elevated lactic acid levels and reduced phytic acid and crude fiber, along with higher amounts of crude protein and a range of amino acids, including serine, histidine, arginine, alanine, valine, methionine, cysteine, isoleucine, and lysine. FMF significantly enhanced egg production and improved the overall egg quality, such as eggshell strength and thickness. It also enhanced total antioxidant capacity and glutathione peroxidase concentrations in serum while reducing serum urea nitrogen and interleukin-1β levels. Histological analysis showed that FMF supplementation improved the ileal villus height-to-crypt depth ratio. Microbiota analysis demonstrated that FMF had a significant impact on β-diversity by increasing Firmicutes , Actinobacteriota , and Desulfobacterota and decreasing Proteobacteria and Myxococcota at the phylum level. The abundance of Corynebacterium , Lactobacillus , and Gallicola was found to be elevated due to FMF at the genus level, whereas Kocuria , Rothia , Helicobacter , and Escherichia-Shigella were decreased. Additionally, diets supplemented with FMF resulted in higher intestinal valeric acid levels among ducks. Our findings indicate that incorporating FMF into laying duck diets can enhance production performance, egg quality, and gut health.

Keywords: fermented feed; laying duck; egg quality; intestinal health (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: Q1 Q10 Q11 Q12 Q13 Q14 Q15 Q16 Q17 Q18 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2025
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/2077-0472/15/11/1230/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/2077-0472/15/11/1230/ (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jagris:v:15:y:2025:i:11:p:1230-:d:1672338

Access Statistics for this article

Agriculture is currently edited by Ms. Leda Xuan

More articles in Agriculture from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().